Hi, everyone. Bigthony Toothtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Agriculture album, The Spiritual Sound.

Agriculture is a Los Angeles-based metal band, from what I understand, and they're back with their second full-length LP, which was one of my most anticipated albums of 2025. And yet, admittedly, this was also a record that it really took me a while to dive into it, appreciate it.

I first caught wind of this band off of their debut album back in 2023, and that album was a scant but aggressive American black metal record with a slightly experimental edge to it. Some pretty wild and unruly performances, too. Maybe the writing and the ideas weren't so well-executed and 'out there' that the band was creatively leapfrogging any number of fantastic acts that were a part of the black metal renaissance that took over the internet in the late 2000s, early 2010s. But there was still a lot of potential shown on that album. And of course, it's always exciting and interesting to see a new band out there willing to explore black metal music with more than just a purist's mindset.

Then comes Agriculture's 2024 Living is Easy EP, and the band dug their heels even deeper into black metal music with, what to my ear, sounded like tighter performances, better writing. The only issue being pretty much that this was an EP, just a short assembly of tracks. But anything that was this good and well put together quality-wise, but album length, would be amazing.

And that's pretty much what I was anticipating for The Spiritual Sound. But this record has actually thrown me for a little bit of a loop as this self-produced venture sees the band jumping between numerous metal subgenres with unexpected fusions of sludge and shoegaze, thrash, post-hardcore, and different shades of extreme metal. I would say on a few tracks, there are even touches of slowcore and forlorn indie rock. So much more so than it was on the band's recent EP, it seems like there's a big focus on tossing out conventions.

Case in point: the opening track of the album, which feels like it was designed to offend basically any metal fan who likes very clear and defined boundaries around their favorite genres in the style. Because the song opens up with this frenzy of blast beats and freaky guitar leads, driving alt metal and thrash metal riffs in the background. Lead vocals that have that traditional black metal fry, but with an especially gargly tone. In a few pockets of the song, you have some clean vocal harmonies as well as some psychedelic trippy guitar layers, too.

The band is just trying it all and immediately switching from one idea to the next. The moment any idea settles in too much or becomes even the least bit predictable. My first reaction to the track, even though I have gradually warmed up to it, is I hated it. It just felt like a genre clash nightmare. But again, the more I listened to it in context of the entire album, I do like how restless it is in comparison with every other track here, which is a bit more cohesive structurally.

I do feel like the song is almost meant in a way to ward off less open-minded listeners, because for sure, the following tracks, passages of moody indie rock, spoken word, blast beats, and tremolo picked guitars, is probably not going to play over too well with some black metal hardliners. But honestly, I found this track to be just as good, if not better, than any attempt bands like Deafheaven have recently made to combine these sounds and styles.

But Agriculture, I feel like, show a bit more guitar heroism in their writing and performances with one of the most expressive guitar solos I've heard in 2025. The guitar work actually continues to be mega impressive deeper into the album, too, with lots of bent notes and furious shredding and the texture variety that you would normally get from a Jack White album or something.

The song "Micah" also echoes a lot of black metal influence with its super righteous chord progression. But as far as the drumming and the vocals and grooves are concerned, the track feels like I'm listening to the backbone of a good old-school hardcore, metallic hardcore song. Some black gaze vibes seeping into the choruses of the track. While it may not be the most rich or layered tune in the tracklist on this record, it's definitely one of the most intense and thrilling performances.

Then the following "The Weight" feels like the best of both worlds from the two previous songs. You have lots of hardcore, mosh friendly riffs, that black metal harshness, completely unhinged, just dizzying mind melting guitar solos, and a crazy winding structure that just feels like a roller coaster ride from beginning to end.

Then "Serenity" is one of the few tracks on this record that feel like they actually could have landed on the band's Living is Easy EP. In some respects, it would have fit in very snuggly with a lot of the black metal flavors in that tracklist, but simultaneously, the super dry production and hardcore gang vocals give it a slightly different flavor and a very visceral feel, too. That and also the tremolo-picked lead guitars on this track, for whatever reason, sound almost like I'm listening to a stuttering synthesizer or something. It's a very odd guitar tone for a metal song in this style, and I like it.

Now, after this, we hit a halfway point that ushers us into a half of the album that feels, in some ways, disconnected from the first. I feel like this project, and it took me a while to come to this realization, it feels like a tale of two albums in a way or two separate projects or experiences. Or maybe what you could say instead is that the album's themes of spirituality really come together into a cohesive flow of songs in the second half that tie things up very nicely.

I feel like if you're not fully in tune with what the band is trying to say here, conceptually, narratively, this section of the record may feel especially all over the place or scattered, as the track "Dan's Love Song" – which to me was a very tough sell as a single; the track is this interludey, droney, shoegaze piece with super clean lead vocals that are quite sleepy and buried in the mix. I do wish it could have been cut down a little bit, but I do see the song as a little bit of a bumper or introduction to this more meditative section of the album in a way.

Because while the black metal influences do continue throughout the rest of the spiritual sound, this next act of the album, I think, does introduce maybe a little more post-metal structures and writing that are more melodic and patient. If you look at the lyrics, especially in the second half of the album, they are diving pretty deep into spirituality and Buddhism, turning into this conversation and dialog around God and religion and existentialism. The harsh guitars and the oddly beautiful, weary vocal harmonies that color the final song on the record, I read as being very influenced by Phil Elverum's Mount Eerie, believe it or not, especially his Wind's Poem era, where he himself was dabbling in black metal.

So yeah, look, I will say, I don't think The Spiritual Sound is a perfect record by any means, but it is one that I've come back around on massively. The highlights were just too good for me not to revisit the record.

The more I listened to it, the more I saw its inconsistency and choppiness across its tracklist as being to its benefit slightly because it does provide a certain variety. And beyond the way that this album sounds on the surface, there is a lot of narratives and conceptuality around spirituality that ties the whole record together, especially the second half, which is an angle that I don't think could have been played on this record as well as it is if every single song throughout the LP just sounded like your standard black metal affair because the way each song sounds plays into whatever message the band is trying to get across.

In that respect, it is a very thoughtful and also a very unique album. I think one of the most bold and daring heavy records that I have heard this year, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano. Agriculture. Forever.